No, that's the Series II TC. The IQ on the 1.4X is almost as good as the Series III, also, there tends to be a bit of cropping with most wildlife images, the 500/f4 has the very best color and contrast that Canon has to offer and I shot that shot at f/8, which all conspire for excellent results.

Haze ruined all of my moon shot attempts this morning. You can see it in the shot below. By the time that the moon was down to that mountain you could barely see it.

My youngest brother is getting the T1i along with the 18-55 kits lens, the 55-250, and the 40mm f2.8 pancake. I'll include a slingbag and a tripod along with cable and wireless remotes, extra battery, and a 16GB SD card. He should be able to just start shooting right away. I bought gave him a Panny FZ28 a few years back for Christmas and he's done quite well with it. He has a good eye for composition.

This is a pic he took during a hurricane a couple years ago. The IQ sucks because it's been uploaded and then downloaded from Facebook. I love this shot, though.